Doesn’t really explain why people irrationally hate in general, even if you forcefed them information contrary to what they’ve been hearing about.

BLOODY HELL KAIOSHIN, I DON’T HATE SUNRISE, THEY DID OVERMAN KING GAINER, WHICH IS A PILE OF AWESOME AND THEN SOME. AND ALL THE GUNDAM SIDESTORIES, WHICH WERE ALSO AWESOME. JUST TO GET THAT OFF MY BACK. AND CHEST.

But back to the topic.

Why is it that there is so much hate in this world, or at least, this little corner of the Internets? Maybe it’s got something to do with what Lord Tennyson wrote up there. (YES IT IS SPELLED WITH A Y)

The line is taken from Lord Tennyson’s Idyllis of the King series of poems (The sixth one, Merlin and Vivien). It is written as part of a conversation with Merlin and Vivien, where Vivien attacks the Kinghts of the Round with scandalous stories, while Merlin does his best to defend the Knights. (And if you must know, Merlin had the hots for Vivien, and in the end, HE DIED. And the bitch ran free. After learning all the spells she could from him.)

Vivien is only interested in Merlin for his robe and wizard hat magic abilities. Other than that, she hates him, because he is good. And evil hates what is good. Usually. Merlin didn’t help himself much with his misogynistic speech, BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT HERE.

How does Vivien’s hate relate to the ‘cube (as I like to call it :P) ?

Let’s take all that shit about KyoAni and Sunrise for example.

Sunrise, as we all know, makes a ton of shows. Most notably, the Gundam series (which Bandai has most probably purchased the rights for, so…). And the Mai-Hime series. Other lesser-known works include OVERMAN KING GAINER (FUCK YES THE BEST DANCING MECHA SERIES EVAR), Eureka Seven (WHICH I HAVE TO WATCH, FOR GREAT JUSTICE), that one idolm@ster spinoff series that had a perverted robot (in retrospect, Setsuna and Exia probably have had sexual relations with each other. CREEPY PORN APPROACHING), AND THEN WE COME TO CODE GAYASS GEASS: ORANGE OF THE HIJACK LELOUCH LIKES COCKS IN HIS ASS OF THE PIZZA HUT AD PLACEMENT REBELLION. (Cut me some slack, I’m having fun T_T )

And Kyoani, well… Full Metal Panic (OH PLEASE KYOANI ANIMATE A DANCING MERRY CHRISTMAS EVEN IF IT DOES RUN YOU INTO THE GROUND BECAUSE OF TESSA IN A MAID OUTFIT FFFFFFFFFFFFF), almost every single Key work in existence (discounting planetarian (3 DAYS FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF), the one game that is not out yet and Little Busters! (THE PORN EDITION)), I BUY SAUSAGE Lucky Star, that one wildly popular show which catapulted Hirano Aya to superstardom, er, I meant IS DAT SUM DANCING ANIMU?, errr, The [insert 3-or-more-syllable adjective here] of Suzumiya Haruhi.

And everybody hates GONZO.

Everyone and their mother and pet hamster hate both studios for many reason, or lack thereof. For Sunrise, it’s always the sme thing from the Gundam Sunrise fanboys: THEY PRODUCE SHIT. For KyoAni, IT’S THAT FUCKING HARUHI IN LUCKY STAR AND THEIR REFERENCES IT HAS GONE WAY TOO FAR. Usually.

Now, both studios consistently produce quality shows (or quality laughs, in some cases) and take a lot of flak from the fans (Less so for Kyoani, because CLANNAD is just too much win at the moment). Dude, Kyoani sacked and replaced the guy directing Lucky Star after chants of “IT SUCKS” was heard from fans both in Japan and overseas (actually, it was the Japanese otaku). That shows how devoted they are to quality.

But why throw all that burning hate at them (and at GONZO and JC Staff and Toei and OSAMU TEZUKA)? What the fuck is wrong with us? They slave over a hot stove to get the juicy animus to the TV so that we can watch it at almost no cost, and all we do is whack them on the proverbial head for dishing out shit?

(Ahem, pardon me here, I’m having emotional diahorrea.)

I think it’s because we are like Vivien. We only desire what we want from these studios, and hate everything else associated with them. In our case, inflated expectations is key to understanding this.

Here’s a funny thing about inflated expectations. It only gets bigger and more incredulous and it usually disregards the product or person in question. That in itself is a kind of false love, the same kind Vivien has for Merlin (and the besotted old fool wanted to have RELATIONS with her. And probably a little more 😛 )

In this case, our inflated expectation of both studios (Sunrise: MOAR UC, NONE OF THIS TOY ADVERTISING SHIT. KyoAni: MOAR HARUHI/FMP PLOX/LESS HARUHI REFERENCES PLOX) cloud our higher mental faculties, reducing our appreciation of these studios to something more… base. Think hungry wild tigers mauling humans (NO NOT THAT TRAGIC ONE WHERE SOMEONE WAS FUCKED IN THE HEAD ENOUGH TO GET HIMSELF MAULED) when they are hungry.

But why do we have inflated expectations for certain things? Are we that bigoted to the point were we think we can pass judgement on the studios based on what they do? Actually yes. We are that bigoted. And selfish. Like Vivien in the poem, what we want from the studios is our selfish desires, which is our inflated expectations, to be fufilled. Once we do that or not get what we want, we then start to heap hate on them.

It’s extremely interesting to note that raw emotion can turn even the most genial of humans into bickering children and animals. Goes to show that you can take a tiger out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the tiger. Meaning: YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE NATURE OF AN ANIMAL OR A HUMAN. AND THE NATURE OF A HUMAN IS ONE OF CONSTANT SELFISHNESS AND REBELLION. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

And you thought I was gonna turn this into some cockamamie Christian sermon 😛

Drm Note: Yes, I am having way too much fun writing this. Most of the words are actually noise that distracts from the actual topic at hand, meaning, I HAD WAY TOO MUCH FUN WRITING THIS. Ignore the sweeping statements, I’m too lazy to actually look the complaints up.

About KyotoAnimu and CLANNAD; they took Key’s resident douchebag Youhei Sunohara and turned him into a punching bag. In fact, it gets to the point where Youhei actually likes being a punching bag.

And as for “hating somebody who has more skill than you?” That’s a given. You’ll always get dissed for doing what people can’t work hard for.

Does that make the haters scum? Trick question. What really should be asked is, “Do you have anything better to do.” A wiser person will take the hints, see this as a lost cause, and move on.

And finally; it’s only a matter of time. Funimation (aka “The Texas Overlords”) are making MONEY because a lot of their titles don’t just play to the “niche” crowds. And it’s historically proven (RIP, Broccoli. Burn In Hell, Bandai Visual USA) that niche does not a long-staying resident make.

P.S.: Someone should tell Gonzo to quit beating up on Iron Linebarrel’s Kouichi Hayase… As a matter of fact, he should be featured as a male lead for the Strike Witches sequal. The moment you start relying on more people than the “niche crowd” is the moment you’re able to save yourselves.

I’d be Jesus if I could explain love and hate in concise and convincing terms (I can hope against hope for the latter but will probably always certainly fail the former).

I got lazy and just asked why?

lelangir suggests that there is no such thing as irrational hate… and I’m intrigued by this line of thought.

I suspect that in many (but perhaps not all) cases, we experience an emotion first (LOVE IT, HATE IT), and then come up with reasons to justify the emotion. But what of these first impressions? Are they the authentic feeling/opinion? Or is the latter, post-reasoned out opinion more important?